The build has been moving forward very sloooooooowwwwwwwwllllllllyyyyy due to my crazy work schedule and my frequent business trips, however I managed to have things done and the basics are there.
Here's a quick update of the process:
Stripping the PSU has been a nightmare, as I couldn't get a hand on a really strong paint stripper...Therefore I had to go through an incredible amount of paint stripper layers and scrapping, however, here it is after a full day of work:
Only God and myself know how stripping the paint out of these debossed arrows has been a pain...
My scandalously luxurious painting facility:
After 4 layers of primer, sanding, 3 more layers, sanding, 4 thin layers of paint, sanding, 2 more layers, sanding, then loads of clear coat, sanding, more layers, sanding, and finally rubbing compound, here we are:
A nice high gloss black PSU...and an eternal hate towards sanding and painting with spray cans.
Then, as I couldn't find black 12 pins connectors to replace the Enermax red ones, I tried to dye them (Moddiy sells 12 pins connectors but they match the Corsair PSU, not the Enermax ones on which the prongs are on the side, not on top of the connector)
Thank to
this amazing thread , I ordered some dye from Pro Chemical:
Unfortunately, it seems that the connectors won't take more dye than this:
It looks like it's difficult to dye connectors that already have a color. I tried different concentration of dye, vinegar, carrier, etc...and they would not get darker than that...The only thing I noticed is that it seems that the hotter the bath, the more dye get in. However I didn't want to run the risk to melt them and therefore I didn't go above 150C...I know some nylon can take up to 400C+ before melting but as I didn't know the nylon type I played it safe. On the other side, the white plastic fork I used to stir the bath turned pitch black, so I guess that the fact they didn't get darker is because they already had this solid red color. Here's a pic with the original color of the connectors, next to the dyed ones:
And...I'm done with the sleeving overdose. And when I say overdose I mean it. With the 5 GPU cables (three 2x8 pins and two 2x6 pins), the seven SATA and all the power cables (24 pins, 4 pins molex, power SATA, etc...), all of them shortened of totally custom made, I had my dose of crimping / sleeving for the next 5 years (even though I love sleeving
)
Not the best sleeving job ever but decent enough IMO:
Now...I actually put the PC together. I had to, as I am now away for almost a month for business, and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of leaving all this hardware in my empty appartment (a neighbour of mine went to Singapore for 2 weeks and got burglared), so I did the build and dropped the PC in my office.
I had no time to take shots (I actually finished the build and dropped the machine at my office two hours before jumping into my plane), but I'm not that happy with the result
...I'll post pics of the PC as soon as I'm back to elaborate why I'm disappointed with the outcome, and also of course to gather the feedback and see how I can improve things without tearing everything apart.
In the meantime, I'll ask for comments and advice in the water cooling section of the forum to see if water cooling this rig is relevant or even possible. Even with all the shortened cables, the cable management has been a nightmare, due to high amount of hardware sitting in the case combined with some weird layout issues with the latter. Anyway, it will be much more obvious as soon as I'll post the pics. I hope you guys will have great inputs to tidy things up and make the build as awesome as it should be
